


All Dynasties Must Fall

by definitionangel



Series: Of Starlight and Clouds [5]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 13:53:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20193352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/definitionangel/pseuds/definitionangel
Summary: When the Lady of Darkness asks him to gather an army, Taeyong is confused. He understands now, because all of life, whether immortal, mortal, or supernatural is cyclical.





	All Dynasties Must Fall

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is in Taeyong's point of view, and something I wrote to replace the old piece that stood here, which was extremely angsty because I felt it didn't fit so well with the rest of the pieces published so far.  
Remember, I don't want you reading my work if you haven't taken care of yourself in a while, so go do that and then come back to this piece!

The wheel of fortune turns. The sun rises and sets. Dynasties rise and they fall again. So why hasn’t his father been knocked off his pedestal yet? Why hasn’t his father, who has been corrupted by power as all creatures, being do, been knocked out of the sky yet?

_ Because _ , a voice whispers in his head, horribly reminiscent of the raspy bug voice of his father, _ I am not the sun, nor am I a dynasty, I am the sky, and the sky will never fall without crushing everyone else. _

Taeyong hates that voice. Hates it with the utmost burning passion. That’s the voice that causes pain, causes harm to human souls which Taeyong has come to see as something like his children, something who he blames the nymph snuggled next to him for.

It doesn’t matter to Taeyong that both of them are mortal now, to him, he and Doyoung will always be the children of the sky, the bringer of the clouds and mists and guardian of the stars.

It might be eons until they finally return to their rightful places in the day and night sky, but he and Doyoung are together on this wretched walk of life. Taeyong reminds himself this, reminds himself that he is lucky to have this at the very least, when he knows their siblings know naught of where they are or if their souls have been completely destroyed yet.

Anger, he’s always angry now.

There’s always a fire in his soul, telling him to climb to the highest peak of China and find Sicheng, gather an army together of arbitrary peasants and throw them at the sky until his father gets knocked off his throne for destroying his loves hard work and looking at him the wrong way.

It doesn’t matter if it’s in this eternity or the next, Taeyong will have that man’s head one day. One day.

Taeyong’s father is also not the only one on his list of people’s whose heads he wants. It’s a very long list. Mostly of souls who have ever looked at his bunny the wrong way. Shame that Doyoung’s always such a people pleaser, if he wasn’t Taeyong wouldn’t have so many souls to make crumble to ashes.

Or maybe Doyoung is a vixen and is just baiting him.

“Doyoungie wake up. If Mistress Huang finds us here you’ll be in trouble.” Mistress Huang is very annoying with her way too fancily done hair and giant flowy sleeves to be of any use around the house. In this life, she is Doyoung’s birth mother, and to Doyoung’s knowledge she is his mother. The only good thing about Mistress Huang is Mistress Huang enjoys showering her only son in gifts, although sometimes Taeyong wonders if she sees her son as a son at all, because she gives him hair pins and jewelry pieces that only the highest ranking ladies of the imperial palace can get to.

Doyoung enjoys it, and it makes him look pretty, so who is Taeyong to complain?

Mistress Huang is also strange. In the twenty years that Taeyong has known this lady, not once has her face changed. As her husband gets noticeably older, Mistress Huang is as lovely and young as ever. She also never, ever takes off her hat in broad daylight and always lets the black veil fall from the brim, hiding her ever fancy and intricate embroidered robes. He can sense something supernatural from her, something not quite right. He wonders if she is his father’s spy, but something about this lady makes him trust, even if she is annoying.

Taeyong isn’t even sure why he finds the lady annoying, actually.

“Mother won’t mind.” Doyoung mumbles, and Taeyong’s heart melts. He is supposed to say no to this? He takes back every good thing he’s ever said about Mistress Huang, she is evil, pure evil.

Taeyong can even see her, smiling from the shadows. Maybe she’s one of Sicheng’s people. Just the thought of him makes him mad, because Doyoung is his bunny, not that stupid Aurae’s. 

The last time they had met, Sicheng made it very clear what he wanted to do. His silky voice still rings in the back of his mind, and Taeyong grits his teeth. Sharing is not caring! Not to him!

“You have to go meet the emperor tomorrow, remember?” Taeyong mutters back, hand running through the silky strands of Doyoung’s long hair, his half closed bunny eyes sparkling in the night sky, a reflection of his home. “It’s also too cold to stay outside on the roof, you spoiled child.”

“Carry meeeee,” Doyoung gives a long drawn out whine, lips puffing out and nose scrunching, oddly reminiscent of his older sister’s immortal moon rabbits. He huffs, “Mother told you to take care of me for a reason, Taeyongie.”

“Spoilt child.” Taeyong huffs back, but scoops up the taller boy anyways, jumping off the roof into the square courtyard below with no hesitation. The wind rushes around them, a familiar feeling, like chasing clouds as they played in the sky when their spirits were younger and had zero responsibilities. Taeyong does not mind spoiling Doyoung at all, and he’s sure the others living in the household felt the same way.

The air cushions their fall, it recognizes them still, and Taeyong is infinitely pleased to know this. The wind blows slightly, whispering something that sounds like ‘you’re welcome’ in his ear, sounding something like Sicheng, and his chest burns with something bitter, red flooding his vision. His pleasure is gone in a split second, because this is not the aurae that he wants to recognize them, not the aurae he wants to be sent to check up on them. It’s not that he doesn’t like Sicheng, it just isn’t fair, it isn’t fair at all that Sicheng is still present in their lives, even when they’ve been banished to the place most immortals like to use as entertainment for their infinitely boring lives.

He is not jealous. He isn’t.

A hiss escapes through his teeth, and Doyoung’s eyes half open to look at him confusedly, they’ve done this so many times that Doyoung knows that it does not hurt Taeyong to do this, even if he isn’t sure why. Taeyong shakes his head with a soft smile as the wind spirit slides the paper door open, and pushes the raging fire of not jealousy down to simmer in his chest so he can explosively yell at the wind spirit later.

Doyoung buries his face into the silk bedding after Taeyong sets him down, uncurling himself, and making himself look a lot like a sleeping moon bunny. It also kind of makes him look as if he were trying to play dead, but Taeyong ignores this fact. Doyoung’s soothing voice is muffled by the bedding, but drenched by sleep and soothing nothenless, “Remember to let go when time calls.”

Taeyong isn’t sure where these words are coming from, and he makes a strangled sound, because they hurt, and for a moment, he wonders what would happen if he had let go that fateful night when Doyoung fell from the sky. 

“I swore to follow you from this life to the next, I swore to follow you from the end of the universe and back, I swore to always find you and keep you safe, and I will keep my promises,” He whispers into Doyoung’s hair once he’s sure the other’s completely asleep. Perks of being a banished nymph whose senses weren’t taken away from him, and for once he thanks his father for the method of torture he’s chosen. He will have to watch Doyoung grow old and leave him, but always come back to him eventually. Taeyong will never forget a thing and to him, this is a blessing, because he needs to remember for the both of them now.

There’s always so much to remember.

He slides the paper door shut behind him, and Sicheng’s unfairly beautiful form shimmers into existence. 

“What. Do. You. Want?” Taeyong hisses through his teeth, feeling the fire from earlier return to his mind with vengeance, as his face turns red with blood. “Why. Are. You. Here?”

“As funny as it is to see you jealous,” Sicheng’s voice is still unfairly pretty, but Taeyong hangs onto the word jealous, because he is not jealous. Sicheng presses a paper into Taeyong’s hands as he speaks, and when Taeyong unrolls it, there are no words. “I come with a message from the Lady of Darkness and her other two children.”

“What do they have to say?” All the fire drains out of Taeyong, burning to a stop when he hears the title of Doyoung’s mother. His brain feels a bit like a grassland that’s been burnt to ashes, the only thing left being scorched earth that is basically useless dust. The Lady of Darkness is not someone to send out messages randomly, mainly because her magic is resting, and hopefully recuperating. Doyoung’s older siblings also, do not like Taeyong very much, because they are too overprotective. He understands why though, but them sending a message makes his heart race five million miles a minute. There’s a twinge of hope in his voice when he asks, “Will they help us leave the mortal plane?”

Sicheng hands Taeyong a bag, and when he peeks inside, on the top, he can see a portrait of himself, sparkling in the dawn light. Sicheng murmurs, “The Lady wants you and Doyoung to stay here and gather an army. She told me to tell you, you will know when time is right to come back with your army and you will know who to gather for your army. And she says if you leave her son to fend for himself, ever, the Night will not forgive you.”

A pulse starts in his brain, and he narrows his eyes. What does the Lady want him to gather an army for?

“She also told me to tell you that she sent Mistress Huang to blend in better with the rest of your ‘army’,” Sicheng mutters, he reminds Taeyong of a cat when he narrows his eyes in response to Taeyong narrowing his. “And that I have to stay with the both of you to act as messenger. Remember how I told you Sharing is Caring?”

A groan bubbles his way out of his throat, not only does he have to work with his one rival from before for Doyoung’s attention, he also has to create a war with an unknown entity. He can feel a nagging at the back of his mind telling him that this unknown entity is actually very known as his father, because all dynasties must fall, even the sun must set. Therefore, as much as his father would very much like to claim that he is the expanse of blue sky that will crush everyone when it falls, he is no different from all the fathers’ before him who fell because their sons decided it was time for them to be over.

Life is a cyclical, so Taeyong knows he too, if he chooses to wage this war, will one day be dethroned, or perhaps he will willingly step down for someone younger, uncorrupted by power. “And if I choose not to wage this war?”

“I think you already know what will happen.” Sicheng’s smile looks sad, it looks lonely, and Taeyong wants it to go away, because it feels more mocking than anything.

Yes, Taeyong does know what will happen. Eventually, Doyoung’s spirit will get eroded away just like the souls in the sky who have been through too many lifetimes, and he won’t ever get to hold stars in his hands ever again like he is meant to do. He’d also break his promise to Doyoung, and that’s the thing he cannot do, in any form.

“Taeyong, come inside,” Mistress Huang rasps, and Taeyong gasps when her silk robes start to smoke and for the first time he understands why she never leaves the house without her curtained hat. “Let us hang the portraits of your coven.”

There are so few portraits, mostly of souls that he’s seen the names for before, time and time again, being nurtured in Doyoung’s intensive care garden of stars. He knows that Taeil was reborn on earth not long after his father decided it was a good idea to anger the Lady of Darkness. There are a couple he hisses when he sees because the souls were so young, but makes no argument. The Lady of Darkness must know what she is doing. She must.

In his mind, he wonders why the Lady thinks that they can beat his father, who is ever so annoying, but the days pass, and the call of the Half Siren rings through his soul. The hunt begins, and he is no longer the same child of the skies his father tried to punish.

He will turn the wheel of fortune himself, so can the sun begin its descent in the sky.

All dynasties must fall.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This piece is slightly shorter than the rest of them and is set in a different lifetime, but if you've read the previous pieces you know that I only give you small snippets of the entire story, which I promise will come together in the end! This is also approximately two days late, but it's still saturday here so it's within the same week I said I would have it published :3  
I'm sorry I haven't been replying to comments, I'll try to do that once I don't need to use my wrist braces as often :(  
Wrist braces suck to use so the next fic will probably come out in about two weeks and I sincerly apologize if there's any delay! ~Lia out!


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